Tag Archives: seed raising

The garden in this little corner of the world has gone quite mad. We have an abundance of cabbage, silverbeet (it’s really taking over!), butter and purple beans, rhubarb, a few pumpkin plants that are very happy with the current climate, a single zuchinni plant which is also VERY productive at the moment (evidence follows………), strawberries, lettuce, chives, parsley, celery, eggplant and fifty million (o.k, slight exageration) cherry and big red tomatoes. I think that’s it?? Ooh, no I forgot the main crop in the garden, the potatoes. Take one bag of seed potatoes from the Warehouse, add some potato fertiliser, an afternoon of serious digging, a few weeks, and you have a rather HUGE crop of potato plants. The cauli and brocolli were abundant, but they largely went to seed. Those that didn’t were savaged by nasty wee white butterflies, despite my religious removal of said nasties. Grrrrrrrrrr.

This evenings pickings: three cute little cherry tomatoes (there’ll be 5 or so ready tomorrow, yipee), beans, and a lovely cabbage. Isn’t it satisfying growing your own food. I must plant the next lot of seeds. Thanks so much for getting me started on this seed raising adventure Lizzie, I’m having a lot of fun :-).

The marrow that I forgot to pick…………………………………………………………..

We’re going to hollow it out and stuff with mince/onion mix and bake for dinner tomorrow night. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Mine’s gone mad!!! This wonderful summer weather is sure bumping things along. I’m so thrilled that we actually have a good lot of useable plants from the seeds Lizzie and I sowed together (thanks Lizzie :-)). Infact, I ended up having to give away quite a few mesculan and tomato plants as we had too many! I still need to plant the carrot tape (tee hee, carrots on a tape cracks me up!), spring onion, and seed potatoes. And then there’s the weeds that have taken over the empty section of the main vege garden, gaaahhhhh.

Look at all of the cauliflower, brocolli and cabbage! I think the Naki girl’s might be receiving some wee vege gifts in a few weeks. Can you spot the weed patch at the back? I’m going to dig that over and plant the carrots etc there.

I’m quite proud of my celery and parsley too. They were looking a bit grim there for a while, but they’ve come alive in the last week. I think they’ll be ok.

Check out the lettuce and pak choy. They have been so easy to grow, I’ll definately be sowing some more. The strawberries are doing well, we haven’t have any produce from them yet but there a lots of plump white goodies that just need to redden. YUM!

I was about to clean out the seed trays as we had a few ‘non producers’, and look what has popped up. There’s a very teensy one in the adjacent tray too. They are eggplant, according to my faded labels. I can’t believe that they have come up, the trays have been bare for weeks. I guess eggplant take their time? It will be interesting to see how they grow.

The weather today has been rather feisty, and the tins have been looking a bit bare after the last batch of cupcakes was snaffled, so Dd and I decided that the best solution was a little bit of baking. What to make? CUPCAKES of course. This time I used the lemon cupcake recipe, leaving out the lemon rind and adding lots of cocoa, tee hee.

These are the easiest little treat to make with a simple flower tip on the icing bag and a few fairy sprinkles. Dd decided that she wanted to decorate hers with a mixture of sweet decorations.

I plyed my first attempt at spinning last night. The result is hmmmmmmmmmm, interesting. The fibre (which we are not sure what it is) was very harsh to ply. There was another wee bundle of roving in the same bag that I was given to spin with, which is so much easier to work with. A lot softer, and easy to get a reasonably fine ply. I’m popping these first attempts on here, feel free to laugh!! They are just so I have a record of how this new obsession started. I promise to improve.

The original wool colour. I’ve dyed one hank and left one natural.

More super scummy yarn. This is one of the latest colourways from Vintage Purls. Colour: Cabaret. Oh my, I don’t know if I can unwind the hank. I keep stroking it and staring longingly into the strands to study the dyeing. Divine, divine, divine. If you haven’t got any, you must. I also purchased a few circulars, so the sock knitting shall begin (again). Note: NEVER use dpns to knit socks. It WILL end in tears.

And the seed raising continues. This is very exciting stuff. Really. We now have many tomato plants, a few lettuce popping through, cucumber, beans plus a garden full of about 40 odd cauliflower and broccoli (I got a bit carried away at the market), beans, silverbeet, buttercrunch lettuce, bok choy, mesculun, chives, parsley, celery, strawberries, potatoes and lots of weeds. Still to plant: potatoes, carrots, spring onion and tomatoes to re-pot. I think that’s it??

The lovely Hannah surprised the girls and I with some birthday slippers 🙂 :-). They are the snuggliest, most comfortable wee slippers I have worn. Dd1 LOVES hers, and Dd2 looks so cute in her weeny little pair. THANKYOU HANNAH. You are very generous. Now go and knit something for yourself!!

I have managed to mutilate the Cadence Rose Sundress I am currently knitting. Hmm, the lace looks very strange doesn’t it? I think I’ve skipped part of a row somewhere and the pattern has jumped :-(. Ummmmm, Sheeeerrrrryyyllll, guess what I’ll be turning up with on Tues?!! (Sheryl is our little Tues knitting group’s beloved knitting surgeon!). Here’s the progress anyway. In the meantime, I’m onto knitting socks, bwaa haa haa haa haa.

Cadence Rose Sundress

Lizzie and I have been dabbling in a little seed raising. Soooo much fun! If you haven’t build up the courage to try it, just give it a go. It is extremely easy, kid friendly and really exciting seeing little plants sprout. The growth over the past few days has been amazing. I must admit that I have been wandering out to the glasshouse several times a day to see what has come up. There is an abundence of tomatoes, a few purple dwarf beans, a couple of cucumber and a few lettuce. There are still quite a few little seeds that need to pop through, so we’ll see if anything arises over the next few days.

First Attempt at Seed Raising

I met the most lovely lady yesterday. She was the contact person for spinning on the local arts council website that I first phoned on Weds.
She invited me to a spinning evening next week, and then phoned yesterday and offered to come and introduce me to spinning! How nice is that?!!
She was here from 1.30 until 4.30 (yay, Dd had a sleep too:-) ), and I learnt to spin! The first lot is rather amusing, but the second bobbin is a lot more even.

Spinning Setup

And, more cupcake making. I had a good reason this time (besides the fact that they are just the yummiest, most delicious little parcels of sugary goodness). It was Mum’s birthday on Thursday. As we couldn’t make it then, we had a little afternoon tea today. I made double chocolate and the trusted lemon butterfly cupcake recipe out of my new cucake recipe book that me ol’ mate Rachael gave me for my birthday. The lemon cupcakes are fabulous, the chocolate are like little rock cakes, tee hee, boo hoo, hoooooooo. Oh well, they are still sort of edible given that I overcompensated and smothered them with chocolate frosting and fairy sprinkles.

Double Choccy & Lemon Butterfly Cupcakes

Finally for this evening, our beloved wee tomato plants that have been lovingly cared for on the windowsill are venturing out into the glasshouse for the first time tonight. Grow strong. I promise to buy you some tomato food this week :-).